When Pa Nweke Nnamani was alive, he married four wives. He died intestate
in 2003. He left behind three wives following the death of one of his wives.
The Nwatus are from Akpugo in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu
State.
Since the death of Nnamani, peace has disappeared from his home, with
his children always squabbling. The quarrel is between the children of the
first wife, Ma Grace and those of the second wife, identified as Ma Victoria.
The wrangling among the children has now led to them dragging themselves
to different police stations. Caught in the middle of these quarrels are
members of the Nigeria Police Force.
For some unknown reasons, personnel of the Nigeria Police, rather than
investigate the root of the problems among the siblings, are alleged to be
twisting the case, taking sides and laughing to their banks. The family matter has gone to Agbani Police Station,
Enugu, then to State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Enugu, and
moved to Enugu State Police Command, D7, from there to Force Criminal Investigation
Department (FCID) Annex, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos. Again, before Alagbon
could commence investigation, the Deputy-Inspector-General of Police (DIG), Mike
Ogbizi, Force CID, Force Headquarters, Abuja, ordered that the suspects were
allowed to go and the matter moved to his domain.
Series of cases have caused the siblings to go to the police. One was
threat to life, another was causing bodily harm and the latest was the alleged
ruthless beating of Victoria, who is said to be in her 70s.
Victoria was beaten by her step-son identified as Afam. In the course of
the beating, she was alleged to have become bloodied and rushed to hospital.
Grace has two males and two females. His first son is Emeka Nwatu, a politician
and currently, Chairman of the Local Government Commission in Enugu State.
Victoria has four boys and two girls. The first son is a pastor, while
the second son is Mr Ekene Nwatu, a Lagos based businessman. The third wife,
who is presently sickly, has two children. The fourth wife is late, but left
two children behind. One of her children is Afam, alleged to have a penchant
for tormenting and beating Victoria.
Ekene and his step-brother, Emeka are those presently in the centre of
the ring, representing each sides of their family.
According to Ekene, the present quarrel in the family was because Emeka
allegedly made Afam to beat Victoria. He further alleged that Emeka wanted to
appropriate their father’s property and then eject Victoria from her
matrimonial home. Emeka, however, insisted that he had no intention of ejecting
Victoria and her children out of the family’s compound. He said that the
protracted problem in the family was between Victoria and Afam.
His words: “Emeka is trying to run us out of our family house just
because our father is dead. Emeka hired thugs, who had been abusing and
oppressing our aged mother. We are based in Lagos and Emeka uses that fact to
use his thugs to attack our mother. Those that beat our mother were arrested
following my mother’s complainant at Agbani Police Station. But one Inspector
Rita, who was the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), compromised the case.”
Emeka alleged that Emeka had repeatedly used Rita to detain and harass
his siblings. He explained that after his mother lodged the complaint, Rita
convinced her to withdraw the case.
Ekene said: “My mother, being uneducated was tricked into endorsing the
withdrawal of her complaint and release of those who beat her. The truth is
that my mother never gave her consent for the case to be withdrawn.”
He added: “This is a very big problem concerning me and Emeka. Emeka has
been oppressing my mother to the extent he sent Afam, our step brother to beat her.
It is because he’s Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, that he
is using the opportunity to oppress us. In 2016, he claimed that my brothers
threatened him; he got them arrested and detained for over a week. The police told him to bring evidence. He said
he received a text message. The police asked him to provide same, but he couldn’t.
He doesn’t allow any of my siblings or I to enter the compound, to the extent
that he stationed police check point in my father’s compound. If you’re a
child of my mother, the police wouldn’t allow you to enter the compound. The
Police will stop you and then put a phone across to him. This problem has been
going on for a long time; nobody has money to challenge him. I called him
sometimes ago; I told him that if my mother dies, it will be on him. He wants
to chase my mother away from the family house; my father built 10-room apartments.
Anytime I visit the village, I lodge at hotels.”
Ekene recalled that two of his siblings were picked on December 31 by
policemen on the instruction of Emeka and spent a week in police detention
without food and water.
Ekene said that the wives and siblings used to live in peace while their
father was alive. But the peace shattered after his death, with Emeka allegedly
claiming that nobody supported him with the medical bills when their father was
sick. Ekene said that the tensed situation took a nasty turn after Emeka,
without informing other siblings, renovated the family house and moved Grace
and Victoria to the family’s kitchen.
Ekene said: “He didn’t tell any of us about the renovation. I heard
about it and called him. I offered to support the renovation with 100 bags of
cement, he refused. After renovation, he moved his mom into the building and
left my mom in the kitchen. It was when people started making noise, that he
reluctantly moved my mother back into the main building. That was almost three
months after the renovation. He told my mom that she should tell her children
to build a house for her. Our family house has five rooms downstairs with
sitting room; while downstairs has four rooms with a big sitting room. He took
over all the rooms and gave my mom and siblings two rooms.”
Ekene, who said he was sick and tired of the quarrels, added that all he
wanted was for Emeka and Afam to let Victoria to be in peace.
He said: “My mom is living in fear. She’s too old for these dramas. I
want Emeka and his thugs to stop disturbing her. She’s in her husband’s house.
She’s not going anywhere. My father married her according to our customs and
traditions. Another thing I want is
justice for my mom. She was attacked and bloodied by Afam, Police should do the
right thing by charging the matter to court. Afam also attacked my two brothers
with knife, the matter should also be charged to court. Moreover, I strongly
feel that peace will reign if Emeka respects his younger siblings by carrying
us along in his plans towards our father’s property. Before our Igwe died, he
tried to intervene in the matter, but his efforts failed because Emeka refused
to listen to anyone.”
Recalling the day Victoria was beaten, Ekene said: “Afam came with some
thugs, whom Emeka used to pay N5000 every week. They met my mother drinking tea
with bread, he confronted my mom, telling her to go and tell her children to
build her own house for her. He collected her tea and drank it. He and his
friends then snatched her pot of rice and eat it. She started screaming. It was
at that point that Afam hit her three times across the face. She fell down. He
injured her mouth, there was blood everywhere, people came to rescue her. She
narrated what happened to our Igwe; the Igwe instructed people to take her to
hospital.”
He explained that when he heard about the beating of his mother, he
called the police to arrest Afam, but at the station, Emeka called the
Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of the station and allegedly
truncated justice. When two of Victoria’s children came to the village in
December, they confronted Afam for beating their aged mother.
Ekene said: “While my two brothers asked Afam why he beat up our mother,
warning him not to try it again, Emeka was upstairs, watching the scenario and
laughing. As my brothers turned to walk away, Afam ran into the kitchen and
grabbed a knife. He tried to attack my brothers. They wrested it from him. In
the process, Afam and one of my brother’s sustained injuries. Emeka called
police to detain my two brothers. Inspector Rita, who is working for Emeka
refused to allow anyone to give food for them. They were detained for week.”
He further noted: “It was when people started speaking against their
continual detention that Rita quickly charged them for attempted murder. The
police plan was to make sure they were remanded in prison custody. It was Rita
that prepared the charge, but I have served them fundamental human right. I’m
appealing to the Enugu State Governor to come to our aid. My elder brother, who
is a pastor, went to him, extending an olive branch, but Emeka walked him out
of his office.”
Emeka, however, denied the allegations leveled against him by Ekene. According
to him, Ekene was being economical with the truth. The aim, he said, was to
divert attention from the real bone of contention.
He explained that the real crux of the matter was that two of Ekene’s
siblings, Chikezie and Chijioke, attacked Afam with a knife and disappeared. He
alleged that Ekene and his siblings wanted to drag his name into the issue in
order to tarnish his image.
Emeka confirmed that Ekene and his brothers were his siblings and that
he contributed in good measure in their education. He explained that their father
died 10 years ago, but before he died, he gave a directive on how the family
land should be shared among the four wives.
Emeka said: “The real problem is that Ekene’s mom had issue with Afam.
This happened around November 2019. I was in Abuja on official assignment when
the quarrel took place. I was told that Afam hit Ekene’s mom on her mouth, causing
her lip to bleed. I was told that Ekene’s mom was in the habit of verbally
abusing Afam, including telling him that his mother died of HIV/AIDS, that he
would die in the same manner. On that fateful day, Ekene’s mother spat on Afam’s
face; he blocked her way along the passage of the family building. So, in a bid
to free himself, his hand hit the woman on her mouth, she started bleeding.”
He said that Victoria went to lodge a complaint with the Police and Afam
was arrested and detained for nearly one week, until kindred members intervened.
He said that Afam knelt down at the police station and begged Victoria for
forgiveness.
“She forgave him, saying that he was also her son. It was at that point
that Ekene’s mother asked the Police at Agbani Police Station to allow Afam to
go. When they returned to the compound, Afam again knelt down and apologised,”
said Emeka.
He mentioned that when he heard about the incident, he was angry with
Afam and then made some calls, directing the vigilante group in the community
to seize his motorcycle as punishment. He said that the villagers intervened,
telling him that Afam had already apologized to Victoria. He said that the
matter had been forgotten until December when Victoria’s children came for
Christmas vacation.
Emeka recalled: “On December 31st, two of Ekene’s siblings,
Chikezie and Chijioke, attacked Afam with a knife in retaliation for hitting
their mum. They inflicted cuts on his wrist and other parts of his body. Afam went
to Agbani Police Station to report the attack. The Police arrested Ekene’s
brothers and detained them for some days before charging them to court. Before
they attacked Afam, they didn’t come to me or other elders of the family to
complain. I was later told that based on a petition to Enugu State Commissioner
of Police by Ekene on the matter, the matter was transferred to the State Criminal
Intelligence Department (SCID) on the order of the CP. Ekene brothers abandoned
the case at the SCID. The next thing was that they were writing petitions
against me, going to media and human rights groups. If they had respected me, I
would have stepped into the matter as an eldest brother, this matter would not
have escalated. I’m still ready to step into the matter in order to settle the
matter out of court and Police. My siblings need to make a retreat and come to
the family for dialogue.”
Reacting to allegations that he wanted to send Victoria out of the
family house, and that he stationed policemen at the front of the compound,
Emeka replied: “I have no business with Police, ‘Stop and Search’ team, which operates
their normal motorized patrol along the road that passed in front of our
compound.”
He further explained: “My father had an old house in the compound and I
built more than eight-room boys’ quarters behind the old building. I relocated
everybody, including Ekene’s mother and siblings. I later sought permission from
other family members to pull down the old building built by our father. I built
a modern duplex with multiple rooms. I still allocated two rooms to Ekene and
his mother in the new building just as they were occupying in the old building.
As the first son, tradition demands that I inherit my father’s homestead, but I’m
not chasing anybody away. The house I built, even the boys’ quarters are large
enough to accommodate everybody, pending when they want to build their own
houses in the land allocated to them by our late father before he died. Also,
as the first son, I realise the huge responsibility on my shoulder, to bring
everybody together, despite the quarrelsome attitude of Ekene, his brothers and
mother. I have been shouldering the responsibilities without a complaint. There
are many things I wouldn’t like to say because Ekene and his siblings are still
my brothers.”
Our correspondent traveled to Akpugo, where he met with Victoria and
other people. She repeated the same narrative given by Ekene, accusing Emeka of
intimidating her and her children and trying to run them out of their family
home. She said that Afam beat her up and
that she reported the matter to the police.
She said: “I thumb printed a paper given to me by the Police at Agbani
but I didn’t know what was written on it. I never gave my consent for the
matter to be withdrawn. I didn’t accept the pleas of Afam when he begged me. I acknowledged
that I reported the incident to my children when they returned in December and
they fought with Afam. My children had a knife, so also did Afam. Afam is an Indian
hemp smoker and is in the habit of disturbing my peace, including stealing my
food even when the pot is still on the fire.”
Speaking on the beating of Victoria, the Igwe’s wife, Lolo Oruruo, said:
“My husband is late now. On that day that Victoria ran to the palace, she was
covered in blood. She came to the palace to report to my husband that Afam had
beaten her, but my husband was laid down. My husband asked her to go and report
the matter to the Peace Resolution Community. Afam used to beat and torment
that woman every day. I’m shocked that the matter is still on. Afam is stubborn
and anyone supporting him will receive repercussion from God, if not from a
human being.”
On the day our correspondent visited Akpugo, Afam, the man at the center
of the squabble, was not around. Every effort made to get him proved abortive
as family members said he had lost his phone and couldn’t be reached.
When our correspondent visited Agbani Police Station, to hear Rita’s
side of the story, she declined to comment.
However, a source revealed that Victoria reported a case of assault by Afam
on November 2019. Afam was arrested and detained until family members
intervened. The matter was said to have been settled at the station with Afam
kneeling down to ask Victoria for forgiveness.
The source said that it was Victoria that endorsed the withdrawal of the
case willingly. The source further explained that on December 31st,
Afam himself came to the station to report that he was stabbed by his step-brothers,
Chikezie and Chijioke. Police arrested them.
The source further stated: “It was on the day that the suspects were
charged to court for assault and attempted murder that a letter came from the
SCID, directing the transfer of the matter to SCID. The Commissioner of Police
made the directive based on a petition written by Ekene’s siblings, alleging
Agbani Police Station was biased. At the SCID, the matter was assigned to a
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Ignatius Enyi, attached to Section D7.
At that point the suspects were released and the case file transferred to Police
Command.”
Our correspondent visited Ignatius Enyi, but he declined to comment. He
referred the correspondent to the Enugu State Commissioner of Police and the state’s
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), an Assistant Superintendent of Police
(ASP), Daniel Ndukwe.
Ndukwe took our correspondent to Section D7 to meet Enyi. Enyi, however,
said that he had preferred they all go to an Assistant Commissioner of Police
(ACP), who then directed them to a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP). It was before the DCP, that Enyi narrated what
transpired in the case.
Enyi said: “When the case was referred to me, I invited the parties
involved. I asked all the parties to provide a surety to guarantee that they
report each time they were needed at the command as the matter was being
investigated. Chikezie and Chijioke provided Emeka Agbo as surety, while Afam,
who could not come on that first day as he was still in the hospital recovering
from the knife attack, came later to make his statement and also provided a
surety. On the next appointment, Afam reported, but Chikezie and Chijioke didn’t.
On three subsequent reschedules, Afam reported, but Chikezie and Chijioke, the
petitioners, didn’t.”
Enyi mentioned that Police through a text message invited the person
that took them on surety, Emeka Agbo, to report at the command, but he
allegedly didn’t respond. The Police wrote officially to his office, requesting
that he reports to the police and produce Chikezie and Chijioke, but he also
didn’t respond. Days later, the IPO called him on phone, inviting him once
again, but still Agbo didn’t report to the command. It was at this point that the
Police went and arrested him. He was subsequently charged to court to show
cause and produce Chikezie and Chijioke who he took on bail. Agbo was granted
bail by the court and the matter adjourned to March 26, 2020.
Agbo, who confirmed the police narrative, said he didn’t actually
know Chikezie and Chijioke before he took them on bail. He claimed to have been
tricked because he was told that the people he was going to take on bail were
the children of a woman, who sells food in front of his office. He said that it
was when he got there, that he discovered it was not true. But the people that
invited him, begged him, to sign as surety.
Agbo said that the two brothers promised they would keep their
appointment with the police, and he eventually signed for them.
He said that when police started inviting him, he called Chikezie and
Chijioke on phone; they told him they were in Lagos. He pleaded with them to
report to the police station, but they kept tossing him up and down.
He stated that he was rough-handled by the police when they initially
thought he was colluding with the absconded suspects. But that eventually, they
believed him.
The Executive Director of Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre
(Rulaac), Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma, who has stepped into the matter, demanding
justice for Victoria, urged the chairman of the Police Service Commission
(PSC),
Musiliu Smith, to investigate the allegations of bias and
unprofessional and oppressive conduct by the officers at Agbani Police Division
and at the Enugu State Police Headquarters.
He said: “We call on the PSC to
investigate the activities of the DPO Agbani and Inspector Rita Thomas of
Agbani Police Station for bias and unprofessional conducts and the O/C D7,
SCID, Enugu for torture.”
He explained that Alagbon was able to
arrest Afam and another suspect for beating Victoria, but the DIG, with a phone
call from Abuja ordered for their release.
Nwanguma said that the DIG, ordering the
release of the suspects who beat up Victoria without first having proper
information concerning the case, would jeopardize the chances of achieving
justice in the case.
1 comment:
Na wah oh, so much injustice
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